132 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



cumstance of the Cornelian law " De sicariis''^ beinar 

 extended to persons who administered Piti/ocampa^. 



In these cases the injury is the consequence of irri- 

 tation produced by the hair of the animal ; but there 

 are facts on record, which prove that the juices of 

 many insects are equally deleterious. Amoreux, from 

 a work of Turner, an English writer on cutaneous dis- 

 eases, has given the following remarkable history of the 

 ill effects produced by those of spiders. When Turner 

 was a young practitioner, he was called to visit a wo- 

 man, whose custom it was, every time she went into the 

 cellar with a candle, to burn the spiders and their webs. 

 She had often observed, when she thus cruelly amused 

 herself, that the odour of the burning spiders had so 

 much affected her head, that all objects seemed to turn 

 round, which was occasionally succeeded by faintings, 

 cold sweats, and slight vomitings : but, notwithstand- 

 ing this, she found so much pleasure in tormenting these 

 poor animals, that nothing could cure her of this mad- 

 ness, till she met with the following accident : The legs 

 of one of these unhappy spiders happened to stick in 

 the candle, so that it could not disengage itself; and, 

 the body at length bursting, the venom was ejaculated 

 into the eyes and upon the lips of its persecutrix. In 

 consequence of this, one of the former became inflamed, 

 the latter swelled excessively, even the tongue and 

 gums were slightly affected, and a continual vomiting 

 attended these symptoms. In spite of every remedy the 

 swelling of the lips continued to increase, till at length 

 an old woman, by the simple application for fifteen 

 days of the leaves and juice of plantain, together with 



■ Mouffet, 185. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xxxviii. c. 9. Amorenx, 15S. 



